Systems and methods for identifying merchant locations based on transaction records

• US 10,637,939 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2019
• Issued: 04/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mastercard International Incorporated (MasterCard Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Mastercard International Incorporated (MasterCard Incorporated)
• Inventors: Mac Nair, Bruce W., Howe, Justin X., Weinberger, Henry, Hu, Po
• Primary Examiner(s): Knox, Tyler W
• Application Number:
  US16/453,373
• Publication Number:
  US 20190320406A1
• Time in Patent Office: 307 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/389 Keeping log of transactions for guaranteeing non-repudiation of a transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/405 Establishing or using transaction specific rules
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Disclosed are exemplary embodiments of systems and methods for identifying a merchant location based on transaction records for the merchant. In an exemplary embodiment, a method generally includes accessing multiple router records. Each router record is assigned to one of multiple cells of a grid structure indicative of geographic location. Each router record is associated with a target merchant. The method further includes, for each of the multiple router records, searching for a match between the router record and at least one of multiple transactions at the target merchant, based on time, and reporting one or more of the multiple cells as a location associated with the target merchant, when a number of matching router records assigned to said one or more of the multiple cells exceeds a predetermined threshold.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying a location for a target merchant, the method comprising:

accessing multiple router records, each router record generated by a portable communication device moving within a range of and communicating with each of multiple routers, each router record including a geographic location associated with signal strengths of ones of the multiple routers recognized by the portable communication device and a temporal indicator specific to the signal strengths recognized by the portable communication device at a time and date indicated by the temporal indicator;

for each of the multiple router records, searching, by a computing device, for a match between the router record and at least one of multiple transactions associated with a target merchant based on the temporal indicator included in the router record; and

reporting, by the computing device, the geographic location from one of the matching router records as a location associated with the target merchant, when a number of the matching router records including said geographic location exceeds a predetermined threshold, thereby identifying the location associated with the target merchant apart from use of a global positioning system (GPS).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein searching for a match between the router record and at least one of the multiple transactions includes searching for the match between the router record and at least one of the multiple transactions based on the time and date indicated by the temporal indicator of the router record being within a predetermined interval of a time of at least one of the multiple transactions.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising filtering out one or more of the multiple router records or one or more of the multiple transactions associated with the target merchant when the time and date of said one or more of the multiple router records or the time of said one or more of the multiple transactions is within a high intensity interval;

and

wherein the high intensity interval includes an interval in which an authorization intensity of the target merchant is above a predetermined threshold.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic location is indicative of one of multiple cells of a grid structure;

and

wherein the method further comprises;

generating the grid structure having the multiple cells, said cells being mutually exclusive of one another; and

assigning each of the multiple router records to one of the multiple cells of the grid structure.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein generating the grid structure includes clustering various router records within at least one standard deviation of a center of the cluster, whereby each cluster defines one of the multiple cells of the grid structure;

and

wherein generating the grid structure includes generating the grid structure such that no more than one merchant is included in each of the multiple cells.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the multiple router records includes a merchant ID, a merchant name, and/or a merchant address.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising, for each of the multiple router records, appending the merchant ID, the merchant name, and/or the merchant address to the router record based on a router name included in the router record.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing, by a location provider, the multiple router records;

purging data identifying a consumer or a portable communication device from each of the multiple router records; and

transmitting the purged router records to a payment network;

wherein for each of the multiple router records, searching, by the computing device, for a match between the router record and at least one of the multiple transactions includes, for each of the purged router records, searching for the match between the purged router record and at least one of the multiple transactions.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing, by a location provider, the multiple router records;

creating a router graph based on the multiple accessed router records;

generating a grid structure through agglomerative distance based clustering of the router graph; and

assigning each of the multiple router records to one of the multiple cells of the grid structure, the geographic location reported as the location associated with the target merchant including the one of the multiple cells of the grid.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing the multiple transactions associated with the target merchant based on a merchant ID for the target merchant;

and

wherein searching for a match between the router record and at least one of the multiple transactions includes searching for the match between the router record and at least one of the multiple transactions further based on the merchant ID.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein each router record is further assigned to one of multiple cells of a grid structure indicative of the geographic location included in the router record, each of the multiple cells associated with signal strengths of ones of the multiple routers;

and

wherein each router record further includes a grid structure cell designation specific to one of the multiple cells of the grid structure to which the router record is assigned, based on the signal strengths recognized by the portable communication device being within the associated signal strengths of the one of the multiple cells of the grid structure.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein each router record is assigned to one of multiple cells of a grid structure indicative of the geographic location included in the router record;

wherein the method further comprises, for each one of the multiple cells of the grid structure, counting a number of matches between one or more router records assigned to the one of the multiple cells of the grid structure and ones of the multiple transactions associated with the target merchant; and

wherein reporting the geographic location from one of the matching router records as a location associated with the target merchant includes reporting one or more of the multiple cells as a location associated with the target merchant based on the counted number of matching router records assigned to said one or more of the multiple cells exceeding the predetermined threshold.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating at least one rule, based on at least one signal strength range for at least one of the multiple routers, for determining a location of another portable communication device based on the reported geographic location as the location associated with the target merchant, thereby permitting the location of the another portable communication device to be determined apart from use of a GPS.

22. The method of claim 4, wherein each of the multiple cells is associated with signal strengths of ones of the multiple routers;

and

wherein assigning each of the multiple router records to one of the multiple cells of the grid structure includes assigning each of the multiple router records to one of the multiple cells of the grid structure based on the signal strengths recognized by the portable communication device being within the signal strengths of the one of the multiple cells of the grid structure.

23. The method of claim 4, wherein each of the multiple cells is associated with signal strengths of ones of the multiple routers located in or around the geographic location.

24. The method of claim 4, wherein each of the multiple cells is associated with a range of signal strengths of ones of the multiple routers.

11. A system for identifying a merchant location based on one or more transactions, the system comprising:

a memory including a data structure, the data structure including multiple transaction records associated with a target merchant; and

a processor coupled to the memory and configured to;

access multiple router records, each router record generated by a portable communication device moving within a range of and communicating with each of multiple routers, each router record including a geographic location associated with signal strengths of ones of the multiple routers recognized by the portable communication device and a time and date at which the signal strengths of the ones of the multiple routers were recognized by the portable communication device;

for each of the multiple router records, search for a match between the router record and at least one of the multiple transaction records associated with the target merchant, based on a consistency between the time and date of the router record and a time and date of the at least one of the multiple transaction records;

for each matching router record;

designate the router record with a transaction indicator, whereby the transaction indicator indicates a match between the time and date of the router record and the time and date of the transaction record; and

assign to the router record an authorization intensity indicative of a number of transactions at the target merchant for a particular interval; and

report one or more of the matching router records to a location provider based on the authorization intensity exceeding a predefined intensity.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to:

generate a grid structure indicative of geographic location, the grid structure including multiple, mutually exclusive cells with no more than one merchant being located within each of the multiple cells; and

assign each of the multiple router records to one of the multiple cells.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the multiple router records is assigned to a grid structure having multiple cells;

and

wherein the processor is configured to report the one of more of the matching router records further when the router record is assigned to one of the multiple grid cells and a number of matched router records assigned to said one of the multiple cells exceeds a predetermined threshold.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein each router record includes a merchant ID, a merchant name, and/or a merchant address;

and

wherein the processor is configured to search based on the merchant ID, the merchant name, and/or the merchant address for the match between the router record and the at least one of the multiple transaction records.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to search for the match between the router record and the at least one of multiple transaction records based on the time and date of the router record being within a predetermined interval of the time and date of the at least one of the multiple transaction records.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to identify the location of the target merchant based on the router specific data in at least some of the matched router records.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage media comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

access multiple router records, each router record generated by a portable communication device moving within a range of and communicating with each of multiple routers, each router record including signal strengths of ones of the multiple routers as recognized by the portable communication device and a temporal indicator specific to a time and date at which the signal strengths are recognized by the portable communication device;

for each of the multiple router records;

append a geographic location to the router record and purge at least the signal strengths of ones of the multiple routers from said router record;

search for a match between the purged router record and at least one of multiple transactions associated with a target merchant based on the temporal indicator included in the router record; and

reporting the geographic location from one of the purged router records as a location associated with the target merchant, when a number of the matching purged router records assigned to include said geographic location exceeds a predetermined threshold.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the at least one processor to generate a grid structure including multiple cells, said cells being mutually exclusive of one another;

and

wherein the reported geographic location includes one of the multiple cells associated with the signal strengths included in the one of the purged router records.